The Wilson River Trail goes for 24 miles through the Coast Range, sometimes following its namesake river, and sometimes diverging into the mountains. There has been talk for years about an extension to the trail, but the Oregon Department of Forestry doesn’t have much of a budget for things like new trails. This is where TKO has been able to step in and help.ODF staff flagged a 6 mile route, and TKO volunteers have begun clearing the corridor that will eventually be the new trail. This “in-kind” work helps to reduce the hit to small budgets. The rumors will undoubtedly continue about the relatively short remaining segment connecting to the Storey Burn trail, which will create a continuous route from the Gales Creek Campground to the east with Keenig Creek Campground to the west.
Beginning at the current end of the trail at the top of Idiot Creek Loop Road, a string of red ribbons tied to trees marks the route. It traverses the steep south side of the canyon of the Devils Lake Fork of the Wilson River, and ends at the site of a former logging camp known as “Idiotville”.
The current task of TKO volunteers is to clear out vegetation from 4 feet on either side of the line marked by the ribbons. Other groups, such as regional youth corps and prison work release crews guided by ODF personnel, will eventually follow this path, removing logs and the duff layer to prepare for the excavation of the tread surface.
TKO Volunteers steadily following the flag-line.
TKO has been running about one crew per week scratching out the beginning of the trail. I myself have been leading some of these crews. The unseasonal snow in April forced us to cancel a few events, and other days the weather forecast was dismal, but we forged ahead anyway and were rewarded with relatively mild weather, with occasional sprinkles and sun breaks.
Our volunteer crews have been a mix of experienced TKO regulars as well as trail runners, some of whom were fulfilling prerequisite trail work to participate in trail running events, and some who are looking forward to having six more miles of trail to run.
Someday the finished trail will meander through this section of the Tillamook State Forest
Trail work is often a matter of overcoming unexpected challenges in a safe manner. You might be surprised to know how difficult it is to hike a trail that isn’t there yet, compared to after a first pass of removing the Salal, Oregon Grape, and Sword Ferns. The work itself is not strenuous since the focus is just trimming back vegetation with loppers. However, the work is not simple! There are ravines where we have to scramble over large logs, and steep slopes where we have to step cautiously. At one point, it was too dangerous to proceed, and I noted the location for further assessment. The portion of the route we have been working on recently parallels a lightly used road, but it is impossible in many places to scramble up to the road. Elk trails provide access in some places.
As of early June, we have completed about 1 out of the 6 miles of corridor clearing, and we plan to keep at it all summer. It could easily take another year or two before the new segment is ready to be opened. In the meantime, there will be a lot of good times meeting new people, getting a great and varied workout, and making plenty of jokes about clearing the path through to “Idiotville.”
Crew Leader Drew and Assistant Crew Leader Pablo guiding volunteers out into the woods.
Volunteer Trail Ambassadors will be placed at some of the busiest trailheads in the Mt. Hood National Forest, the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, and trails on the North Oregon Coast. Volunteers will have the opportunity to table at trailheads and hike the trails on weekends during peak season. Volunteers will engage with the public to answer hiking and recreation related questions, promote responsible hiker ethics like “Leave No Trace,” and steer people to useful resources like OregonHikers.org and ReadySetGorge.com.
Arica Sears, the Deputy Director for the Oregon Coast Visitors Association, has been integral to bringing the Ambassador program to the coast. She notes, “The Trail and Beach Ambassadors provided an invaluable asset to the visitor experience last year by sharing localized messages and opportunities to visitors. This program supported coastal destinations during a time when businesses and agencies had reduced hours and capacity to communicate with visitors and will be a helpful part of Oregon’s reopening process this summer.”
Volunteers can look forward to volunteering at multiple trails in the Gorge as well. “We are excited to continue our partnership with TKO’s Trail Ambassadors. Despite significant challenges over the past year, their unwavering commitment to building, restoring, and maintaining hiking trails has been remarkable,” said Christy Cheyne, Forest Supervisor. “Trail Ambassadors will continue to be pivotal in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.”
“Last year, Trail Ambassadors of TKO helped both rangers and visitors to state parks by sharing info about trail conditions and Leave No Trace practices. Efforts like these help keep people safer, and help keep the trails in better shape, too. We appreciate the efforts of all of the Volunteers as we navigated the changes brought by 2020’s Covid 19 pandemic. We look forward to working with this year’s volunteers.” shared Oregon State Parks Ranger Miranda Mendoza.
Program organizers are looking for friendly, professional, outgoing individuals who enjoy informing and helping others and possess knowledge of Gorge, Mt. Hood and coastal trails. Volunteers are required to take an online training before signing up to volunteer. Volunteers who complete 24 hours of volunteer service earn a Northwest Forest Pass.
For Trail Ambassador Program details and how to sign up to volunteer, visit this page.
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About Trailkeepers of Oregon
Trailkeepers of Oregon’s (TKO) mission is to protect and enhance the Oregon hiking experience through stewardship, advocacy, outreach and education. They manage the popular hiking resource oregonhikers.org and work with over 2,000 volunteers every year on trail stewardship projects and Trail Ambassador activities across Oregon’s national forests, state parks and beyond. You can find out more about TKO’s work at https://dev.trailkeepersoforegon.org/.
About Mt. Hood and Columbia River Gorge Regional Tourism Alliance
The Mt. Hood/Columbia River Gorge Regional Tourism Alliance seeks to build awareness for the region as a premier, multi-day, and year-round travel destination that benefits all communities in the region through global marketing, PR and sales. It is our mission to build awareness for the lesser-served communities in the region and support efforts for sustainable destination development programs and training opportunities. Learn more:http://www.hood-gorge.com/
by Paul Gerald, Board Member, Trailkeepers of Oregon
Distance: 3.4 or 5.8 miles – or less! Elevation gain: 120 to 300 feet
A great way to welcome spring is to get yourself, and your kids if you have them, out for a short, easy walk, or just a day in the park. You might want something that isn’t too challenging, that provides a little variety, and that can easily be cut short if the weather turns sour. If all of that sounds good right now, then a visit to Champoeg State Park, on the banks of the Willamette River, might be in order. It’s a short drive from Portland; its trails are nearly flat and often paved; it offers other activities like disc golf, boating, and a playground; it’s suitable for all levels of interest and ability; and while you’re there you can learn something about Oregon history by walking in the footsteps of some of its earliest European settlers. The Field Guide features two hikes, the Champoeg Loop and the out-and-back to Butteville Store; and don’t even worry about the distances listed, as both of these easy strolls can be as short as you’d like.
One of several stretches of paved trail in Champoeg State Park; these make it easy for people with walkers, strollers or wheelchairs to enjoy the woods and river. (Photo by Paul Gerald)
One of the nice things about these trails is that they are all as close to flat as you’ll find in the Northwest, and many of them are paved. So if there are still muddy spring conditions elsewhere, most of Champoeg (pronounced like shampoo-y) will leave you with dry feet. In fact, if you’re pushing little ones in strollers, riding a bike, or piloting a wheelchair, you can have a lovely and smooth visit to the woods and river here. The Butteville Store hike, to the longest continually operated store in Oregon (since 1863!), is a park bike path that connects with a road. Only the last quarter mile into Butteville is unpaved, and that’s along a protected shoulder of a two-lane highway.
Champoeg hikes are about the little things along the trail, like this spider web glistening in the afternoon sun. (Photo by Paul Gerald)
Hiking in Champoeg isn’t about grand views or being in wilderness. It’s about peaceful strolls among trees along a river – and about stopping to appreciate the little things. March in Champoeg’s woods will be all about wildflowers, especially trillium, that perennial harbinger of spring. So, since you’re not banging out big mileage on a spring conditioner hike, stop to enjoy the flowers, the spider webs, the fish jumping in the river, the birds scurrying in the brush, the deer in the fields early or late in the day. Bring a picnic and grab a table in the day-use area. And if you make it all the way to the Butteville Store, reward yourself with an ice cream and/or a hot drink!
It’s not just forest and river at Champoeg; there is plenty of open space, as well. This is actually the former town site. (Photo by Paul Gerald)
Champoeg isn’t just a hiking destination; it’s a state park with facilities, from a museum to campgrounds and yurts to a boat ramp. And it also offers wide-open spaces so often lacking this time of year, when the Cascades are still snowbound and the coast still cloudy and rainy. Champoeg was once a town, founded in 1850 and wiped out by the Great Willamette River Flood of 1861. The former town site is now a large field (pictured above) where street posts mark the locations of former intersections. Now this field and others offer a chance to get out of the woods and soak up the sunshine if you’re so lucky. There are also designated pet exercise areas in the park and a 19th -century barn that’s worth exploring.
One of several benches along the Champoeg Loop Hike looks out over the Willamette River. (Photo by Paul Gerald)
The Willamette River is your constant companion at Champoeg, even when it is just out of sight. Along either of these hikes, you will catch a glimpse of it through the trees, see boats motoring along it, hear the laughter and shouting of swimmers from private docks across the way, and if you’re lucky, maybe see a salmon or a steelhead leap from its waters. In the 19th century, steamboats plied the Willamette from Portland all the way to Eugene, and the recently restored landing at Butteville, very near the store there, was the busiest between Willamette Falls and Salem. But today the river near Champoeg is just a deep, peaceful pool, visible from multiple viewpoints along your hikes. Several side trails on both hikes also lead down to the shore.
A marker along the Pavilion Trail, part of the Champoeg Loop Hike, marks the location of the famous 1843 gathering. (Photo by Paul Gerald)
Even before there was a town at Champoeg, when French Canadian fur trappers and American farmers were first settling among the open prairies along the river here and trading with the Kalapuya people, a seminal moment in Pacific Northwest history occurred on this site. In 1843, at a time when jurisdiction over the vast Oregon Country was disputed, a group of white men gathered and voted in favor of forming a provisional government for an area that stretched from the Pacific Coast to the Rocky Mountains and from the 49th parallel to the California border. Today an obelisk marks the spot where that vote occurred. (It also honors only the settlers who voted “yes.”) A pavilion nearby was built for the 58th anniversary celebration in 1901, when the monument was unveiled by the last living voter from 1843, François Xavier Matthieu. Nearby you can also find an old cottonwood, now an Oregon Heritage Tree, which appears in photos of the 1901 celebration.
COVID-19 Alert: This article was posted before strict guidelines came into effect regarding use of the outdoors. All Oregon state parks are now closed to the public, and hiking is no longer recommended as an appropriate activity. Stay at home, stay healthy, and find ways to exercise that comply with social distancing guidelines. Champoeg State Park will still be there when the all clear is given!
by John Sparks, Newsletter Editor, Trailkeepers of Oregon
Distance: 12.9 miles Elevation gain: 505 feet
The National Park Service’s Fort to Sea Trail, accessible at all times of the year, follows a route that members of Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery might have taken in order to commute to the Pacific Ocean. The trail was finally completed in 2005, just in time for the Lewis and Clark bicentennial celebration. Much of the trail lies within the Lewis and Clark National Historical Park, which includes Sunset Beach State Recreation Site. The trail can be hiked from either end (no fee at Sunset Beach; $10 pass at Fort Clatsop), and a partial loop is possible using the Kwis Kwis Trail on the Fort Clatsop end. Hikers will experience dark woods of Sitka spruce, sedge wetlands, cow pastures in the Clatsop Plains, and views up and down the sweeping 16-mile stretch of beach that extends from the mouth of the Columbia to the Necanicum River.
Reenactors demonstrate the candle making process at Fort Clatsop. (Photo by John Sparks)
The Corps of Discovery camped at Fort Clatsop during the winter of 1805-06, bemoaning the boredom, the diet of elk (over 100 killed), and the incessant rain (only 12 rain-free days). Lice and fleas infested the camp and, while relations with the local Chinook were friendly, the Indians drove a “hard bargain” and severely depleted the Corps’ stock of trade goods. The men spent the winter preparing for the long voyage back across the continent, and a detail was sent to the beach – the site is actually in Seaside – to manufacture salt from ocean water. Lewis and Clark themselves reviewed their journals, and Clark meticulously drew detailed maps from his notes. The explorers handed over the fort to Chief Concomly, but the entire palisade of cabins had rotted away by the mid-19th century. The model fort now on display is only 15 years old and was more meticulously planned than previous renditions, the copy carefully constructed from Clark’s sketches.
Rove beetles pollinating a western skunk cabbage (Lysichiton americanus) in a coastal wetland. (Photo by John Sparks)
The central section of the Fort to Sea Trail borders a stretch of wetlands between Clatsop Ridge and the Skipanon River. By February, skunk cabbage is beginning to bloom in the marshlands and lending its distinctive pungent odor to the landscape. Both the bright yellow color of the spathe and the fetid smell attract the small flying rove beetles (family Staphylinidae) who serve as the plant’s pollinators. The beetles can be seen on the tiny flowers that stud the central four-inch spike, or spadix. The skunk cabbage’s bright green floppy leaves are the largest of any Pacific Northwest native. Skunk cabbage is a thermogenic plant, with the flower buds using cellular respiration to create a heating system within the spathe that may be 35 degrees above the surrounding air temperature.
View of the Skipanon River from a footbridge on the Fort to Sea Trail. (Photo by John Sparks)
The Skipanon River follows a lazy six-mile course north from Cullaby Lake to enter Youngs Bay at Warrenton. For most of its course, the river is at sea level and only about a mile and a half from the Pacific Ocean, from which it is separated by the low rolling ridges of former sand dunes. The connection between the lake, named after a supposed descendant of a member of the Corps of Discovery who had dalliance with a local Chinook woman, and the river is artificial. Cullaby Lake originally drained into Neacoxie Creek, but shifting sands blocked that route and settlers drained the lake northward. The Skipanon is the westernmost tributary of the Columbia River on the Oregon side. The North Coast Watershed Association has been active in proposing removal of flood gate structures lower on the river that impede upstream progress of spawning coho, cutthroat trout, and lamprey.
A hiker strolls along the Fort to Sea Trail where it crosses private land on the Clatsop Plains, with Saddle Mountain in the distance. (Photo by John Sparks)
Between Highway 101 and Sunset Beach State Recreation Site, the Fort to Sea Trail crosses the rolling pastures of the Clatsop Plains south of the Oregon National Guard’s Camp Rilea. Hikers need to stay on the route here, where kissing gates take you from one field to the next and dairy cows languidly masticate their cuds and stare you down. (The elk are shier and will trot off at your approach.) The trail passes a Presbyterian church near the highway. The current building stands on the site of the first church built west of the Rocky Mountains in 1846. Hikers cross Neacoxie (Sunset) Lake, one of several longitudinal interdune lakes in the plains, on a sturdy footbridge. The landscape here is less than 1,400 years old as the beach slowly migrated 5 ½ miles westward from the former coastline at Astoria. Each low north-south ridge represents the foredunes of a former beach. The rolling sandy expanse has been stabilized over the course of the past 150 years with vegetation planted by white settlers.
See the Fort to Sea Hike in the Oregon Hikers Field Guide for more details and trailhead information.
by John Sparks, Newsletter Editor, Trailkeepers of Oregon
Distance: 8.2 miles one-way Elevation gain: 1,550 feet
The Clackamas River Trail is a perfect December outing as the area should be snow-free but less visited and the old-growth groves impart a greater majesty in the diffused light. Trailkeepers of Oregon has returned to the trail every year to patch up eroded sections of trail and improve stream crossings. There are several options here: most people prefer the 7.8 mile return trip to Pup Creek Falls from the Fish Creek Trailhead; others may wish to begin at the Indian Henry Trailhead, which requires no fee and takes you directly into the Clackamas Canyon section of the Clackamas Wilderness; still others may prefer this as a through-hike with a car shuttle, a hike-and-bike (leave your bike at Indian Henry and start hiking at Fish Creek), or an undulating 16-mile out-and-back excursion.
The Clackamas River is constricted as it flows past basalt buttresses at The Narrows. (Photo by John Sparks)
The Clackamas River flows through a narrow defile in the Columbia River Basalts here. High cliffs above the opposite bank display successive lava layers. The Clackamas carved this canyon on an 83-mile run from the west slope of Olallie Butte to the Willamette River at Oregon City. The entire area is a catchment of pristine river systems that are part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers system. In addition to the Clackamas itself, these include the Collawash River, Roaring River, South Fork Roaring River, Fish Creek, and the South Fork Clackamas River.
Scarlet waxy cap (Hygrocybe punicea) sprouts in the duff along the Clackamas River Trail. (Photo by John Sparks)
Bright red waxy caps (Hygrocybe punicea) are winter mushrooms that emerge in small clusters on the forest floor. Initially cone-shaped, they will spread their caps to reveal thick yellowish gills and orange stalks. They are found in forests throughout North America and in northern European pastures. Some sources claim a symbiotic relationship with mosses. Waxy caps are marginally edible and may cause some consumers stomach distress.
Tall, narrow Pup Creek Falls spills into its luxuriantly green amphitheater. (Photo by John Sparks)
The Northwest Waterfall Survey puts Pup Creek Falls at 237 feet. The waterfall spills over a classic basalt lip in two tiers. Trailkeepers of Oregon has improved the quarter-mile access trail to the falls in recent years, allowing for better views of this spectacular waterfall in its verdant amphitheater enhanced by bright mosses and lichens with a dense canopy of conifers. The best times to visit are November to June during the annual rainy season.
A double-trunked western red-cedar shades the bank of the Clackamas River. (Photo by John Sparks)
Western red-cedar (Thuja plicata) is a feature of river bottoms throughout western Oregon. Farther up the Clackamas, in another section of the Clackamas Wilderness at Big Bottom, you’ll find one of the largest intact groves of old-growth red-cedars in the state. The cedar’s resistance to decay made it the most important wood for West Coast Native Americans in the construction of plank houses and canoes. It was also the first-choice timber source for Euro-American settlers, who rapaciously plundered cedar bottoms of most of the old growth. Slow-growing, it was replaced as the favored plantation conifer by quickly maturing Douglas-fir, an economic choice that defines the timber culture we have today.
The Clackamas River Trail runs through Half Cave under a basalt overhang. (Photo by John Sparks)
Near its southern terminus at the Indian Henry Trailhead, the Clackamas River Trail takes advantage of a weakness in the layers of Columbia River Basalts to negotiate a cliff face under an overhang. Half Cave is a feature of the Clackamas Canyon section of the Clackamas Wilderness, which runs from Indian Henry to The Narrows. The Clackamas Wilderness, five disjunct segments spread 50 miles apart, was designated in 2009 under the Omnibus Public Land Management Act, a law which also created the nearby Roaring River Wilderness, other small wildernesses in Oregon, and added significant acreage to some existing wildernesses in the state. The other sections of the Clackamas Wilderness are the South Fork, Memaloose Lake, Big Bottom, and Sisi Butte.
See the Clackamas River Trail Hike in the Oregon Hikers Field Guide for more details and trailhead information.
By Paul Gerald, Board President, Trailkeepers of Oregon
As any trail crew can tell you, when you have a job to do, you need a plan. Without a plan, you can lose time, miss opportunities, create a mess, waste energy and maybe get somebody hurt. So before you work, you plan. On the Trailkeepers of Oregon Board of Directors, we had a plan, too. And then everything changed—for the better. So over the last year, we’ve been making an expansive new plan, and I want to share the core of that plan with you now.
TKO does a lot in the background to support our trail work. (Photo by Paul Gerald)
For years, TKO was a small but scrappy organization run by the board members; we were thrilled to do 20 crew parties in a year. Then, in 2017, we hired Steve Kruger, our first Executive Director. Shortly after that, the Eagle Creek Fire took our visibility in the community to heights we had never imagined. Money and volunteers poured in, the media came calling, potential partners came from all directions, and Steve quickly became a full-time employee, joined since by two more staff, Natalie Ferraro and Susan Schen.
It has been amazing—and it has blown our previous plan out of the water. So last January our board went on a daylong retreat at the Portland Audubon Society to start work on a new 10-year vision and plan for the organization. Our mission remains the same: to protect and enhance the Oregon hiking experience through advocacy, trail stewardship, outreach, and education. The board also spent some time doing “visioning” exercises, imagining a world in which TKO’s work is being done to the best of our abilities. We came up with this vision of our successful future:
Oregon’s trails are a place where people can go to connect with nature and one another. They are accessible and welcoming to all communities.
The trails and the natural lands that they explore are well cared for by inspired TKO stewards and dedicated public resources.
We also thought long and hard about our values, the things that drive our work from the inside. It’s one thing to ask what we want to do, but why do we want to do it, how do we want to do it, and who do we want to be while we’re doing it? Here are TKO’s values:
Quality: We build, restore, and maintain trails to the highest standards to leave a lasting legacy.
Inclusion: We create partnerships with diverse communities and work together to make trails and nature welcoming and accessible.
Leadership: We give voice to Oregon’s hiking community, building bridges between the public and decision-makers to ensure a thriving trail system in Oregon, accessible to all communities.
Appreciation: We connect people with nature, inspiring a responsibility to maintain access to Oregon’s natural places.
Collaboration: We develop collaborative relationships and trusting partnerships with land managers, volunteers, and trail supporters to make significant impact with limited resources.
Alison Nichols, TKO crew leader, at a tabling event in July announcing TKO’s work parties at Silver Falls State Park. (Photo by John Hilbert)
With our mission and values set, our four committees—Stewardship, Communications, Advocacy, and Executive—went to work laying out the impacts that each wants to have. All of this is covered in a document we will release later this year, and each committee is already well into the detailed planning of specific tasks to make these impacts real. Stewardship will work to connect more people to trail work, develop more leaders, build a culture of fun and safety, and expand our partnerships statewide. Advocacy will develop positions, connect with public officials, and champion trail campaigns. Communications will engage with current and future supporters, give voice to diverse communities, and establish TKO as a statewide leader. Executive will lead a massive effort on diversity, equity, and inclusion while also developing internal structures and systems such as the board itself, staff, fundraising efforts, and facilities.
Paul Gerald tries his hand at the crosscut saw on the Old Vista Ridge Trail in 2018. (Photo courtesy of Paul Gerald)
It is a ton of work, and we have an amazing group of people rolling up their sleeves all over the organization, from board meetings to trail work parties. We are all part of the same effort, whether we are clearing brush or attending yet another planning meeting. What connects us all is a love for Oregon’s trails, the natural places they take us to, and the other people we can connect with there. You are part of this effort, as well. I thank you for that. We have an excellent plan in place, an inspiring vision to work towards, and a common set of values and goals. So let’s get to work!
By Michael McDowell, Newsletter Editor, Trailkeepers of Oregon
Stephanie Noll is a leading force behind the Oregon Trails Coalition (OTC), an organization conceived in 2016 and formally incorporated in 2018 to advocate for trails throughout the state and to bring together agencies and organizations working with trails.
Trailkeepers of Oregon serves as OTC’s fiscal sponsor. In an interview with Trailkeepers, Steph describes the origins of OTC and the work to be done to build a greater statewide trail network in Oregon.
How did the Oregon Trails Coalition come into being?
For me, it goes back to the days when I worked for the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, now The Street Trust. A bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organization and trails-related organizations seemed like natural allies, and I wasn’t aware of any statewide trails organization doing advocacy or working on funding or policy-related issues, outside of specific “friends of trails” groups in specific regions. It’s pretty funny when you Google “Oregon trails” anything, you come up with all kinds of things about the Oregon Trail and the Oregon Trail video game.
Federal funding designated for trails had dwindled, and Oregon’s trails were receiving less and less funding. Professionally I had the funding and policy perspective, and personally I got more interested in focusing on trails as my kids got more mobile. I have twin eight-year-old boys. I’ve always liked hiking and camping, and I’d also done a lot of bike touring. But once I had kids, I lost all interest in biking on the highway system or rural roads. I suddenly felt more aware of my own mortality and got more passionate about ways to adventure off the road with my kids.
In fall of 2016 Travel Oregon was in the early stages of launching an Oregon outdoor recreation initiative. I had left my job at The Street Trust and wanted to work on trails. I approached Travel Oregon to learn more about their goals, and shared with them my hypothesis that Oregon needed more organization on the statewide level—not necessarily a new organization—to bring together the trails community as advocates for funding and as a network of professionals working together.
They funded a small research report. I interviewed more than 30 trails stakeholders from around the state—land managers, volunteer organizations, public agency folks, advocates, a wide range of folks across Oregon—about their goals for the trails they were maintaining or trying to develop, and the barriers to achieving their goals. That was the first time I sat down with Tom Kloster and learned about Trailkeepers of Oregon.
When I did that initial report, I learned that the most universal needs across the state were the need to convene the trails community and the need for more trails. People who worked in different public agencies didn’t have enough opportunities to talk to each other. Volunteer organizations felt there weren’t enough conduits to build relationships with public agencies. There was a big desire to convene for relationship building and information sharing and opportunities to collaborate. The other need that was universal across the board was the need for more funding to develop and maintain trails.
I wasn’t out to launch a new organization. I was wondering if there was an existing organization within which this effort to coordinate partners across the state could live. Through that series of conversations, Trailkeepers of Oregon seemed like the most natural fit of everyone I talked to. It was a young organization and small, with a statewide vision—not focused on a specific trail or region, but filling in the stewardship gaps statewide, for any trail that wasn’t a PCTA with its own organization.
Steph Noll and sons bike-camping at Stub Stewart State Park, summer 2018. (Photo courtesy of Steph Noll)
Who is the OTC?
We’re a coalition of public agencies, trails enthusiasts, volunteers, and professionals. I’m the staff for the coalition. Following the initial conversations with thirty folks, Travel Oregon invested seed funding to host a trails summit and do some coalition development. In 2017 we had our first Oregon Trails Summit, bringing together 200 people in Bend. Trailkeepers of Oregon offered to be the home for that organizing effort, serving as the fiscal sponsor. It was a full-day summit, and the last two hours were kind of a big strategic planning meeting. From that meeting and the follow-up survey, we felt we had a clear direction. There was a desire for the summit to be an annual event, with other opportunities to convene as well, with regional get-togethers and webinars. Folks wanted to learn about what was happening in other regions of the state, especially about other partnerships between land managers and volunteer groups. And folks wanted to have an organized presence in Salem. There wasn’t anyone going to our public agencies and legislature in Salem saying, “Hey, trails are really important to us as an Oregon community.”
We had an open call for advisory committee members. With the combination of people raising their hands to volunteer and some additional recruitment for a diverse group, we went forward with an advisory committee of initially about 16 people. We had reps from the US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management [BLM], Oregon State Parks, Oregon Department of Transportation, Trailkeepers, the mountain biking group Central Oregon Trail Alliance, Oregon Equestrian Trails, Oregon State Snowmobile Association, and REI—a pretty broad group. That committee worked to develop the coalition’s mission, values, broad goals, and structure. TKO graciously offered to be the incubator for the coalition effort, and to this day still is the fiscal sponsor. The summit is funded by sponsorships and registration. Travel Oregon continues to provide seed funding for coalition development, but we’re transitioning to look to our coalition supporters to fund future work.
Steph Noll speaks at the 2018 Oregon Trails Summit. (Photo by Gabriel Amadeus)
The second conference was last year, also in Bend. How would you characterize the progress since the first conference?
We had two full days of programming at the second summit, in October 2018. We’d gone from “Hey, maybe we should start a coalition!” to “Our coalition has officially incorporated as a coalition! We have all of our guiding documents, clear goals, and an active advocacy program.” With 26 current advisory board members, our call for additional applications remains open, and the board is reviewing those at least twice a year.
With a really broad coalition, there’s much that folks have in common, but there are thorny issues too. At least for the beginning of our coalition’s existence, we’ve decided that our advocacy will stay focused on preserving and increasing trails funding in Oregon. For any other thorny issue around access or kinds of trails, the coalition won’t take a position but can serve as a forum to talk about it or educate each other.
Summit attendees, October 2018. (Photo by Daniel Sharp)
You’re saying your primary purpose right now is to increase trails funding across the board. Are you talking specifically about something like Travel Oregon? Are you going to be lobbying with individual agencies to increase the trails share of their budgets?
We’re working at lots of different levels. In federal advocacy, we’re advocating for full authorization and full funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. We also made several federal budget allocation requests related to Forest Service, BLM, and National Parks lands. On federal issues we generally follow the lead of national partners like American Trails and the Back Country Horsemen of America. In February we had our first Oregon legislative action day in partnership with Oregon Outdoors.
In the Portland metro region we’re active in advocating for trails in the Metro parks and nature bond renewal and the planned 2020 transportation funding measure. We’ve been hosting regional advocacy roundtables with partners and submitted a letter to the new Metro council about our priorities for seeing trails funded.
Steph Noll with sons at Drift Creek, summer 2018. (Photo courtesy of Steph Noll)
How do you see the Oregon Trails Coalition playing a role in facilitating relationships with the Forest Service and state forest districts? The way it’s done now it’s an individual thing—someone goes out and talks to the trails ranger. TKO has varying degrees of relationships, and there are parts of the state where we have no relationship whatsoever.
The annual summit gives an opportunity for someone who works for a specific ranger district in one national forest to hear what is happening with TKO and the Forest Service in the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area and Mount Hood National Forest. Folks on the individual ranger district level can hear, OK, this is how it’s working somewhere else in the state. I think the role of the coalition is twofold: sharing local stories so other people can build similar relationships without having to make it up from scratch, and working with managers on the regional level on broader partnerships and removing red tape.
How do TKO and the Oregon Trails Coalition compare to what’s happening with trails advocacy in Washington state, say with the Washington Trails Association?
WTA is a powerhouse, and they do an amazing amount of awesome work, but they are also part of a larger advocacy infrastructure. Part of what they’re able to accomplish is because they aren’t just a strong organization out there by themselves, but they have other staffed organizations that they’re working with on advocacy efforts as well. There’s also a Washington State Trails Coalition, which is the entity that puts on their statewide conference, and there’s the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition, which is a staffed advocacy organization that partners with WTA. Washington has a staffed statewide mountain biking organization called Evergreen. So when I think about the coalition in Oregon, I think of TKO as mapping most directly to WTA, and the Oregon Trails Coalition as a hybrid between the Washington State Trails Coalition and the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition. Washington doesn’t have the convener and the advocate under the same organization umbrella; they have two separate organizations. We’re moving forward with a dual model.
Five, ten, twenty years from now, how do you see this statewide trails coalition playing out?
Our goal is to lift all the boats, for all the organizations and public agencies that are working on trails. Our goal is to make it easier for them to do what they’re doing—to break open funding for their projects, and to create a relationship infrastructure in the state. I imagine Trailkeepers and the Trails Coalition growing up together. I see Trailkeepers of Oregon as a larger organization with a truly statewide presence helping to set a standard for trail stewardship—so that land managers can trust local volunteer groups, and there’s a sense of a shared standard across the state for trail maintenance. I see Trailkeepers as the hub for stewardship. I see the Trails Coalition as the home for the state summit that covers all the other trails issues that don’t fit into boots-on-the-ground stewardship, and lets all the groups and agencies come together. Ten years down the road I hope that we’re all enjoying the fruits of a really successful statewide funding measure for trails. I think that will most likely come as part of a larger recreation and conservation measure, either a big legislative campaign or a big ballot measure campaign. We’re talking about tens of millions of more dollars on the table for trails each year in Oregon.
By Susan Schen, Crew Leader, Trailkeepers of Oregon
The Reinhart hoe is a tool used for grubbing, especially the digging and scraping of dirt by TKO volunteer crews to create and shape trail tread. Sometimes called a “rhino” or “bendy shovel,” the tool was invented in the 1970s by Gordon Reinhart, a fire and recreation officer with the US Forest Service on the Umatilla National Forest. The head of the tool is a square-ended curved shovel blade mounted at a 90-degree angle to the handle.
A Reinhart hoe set by the side of the trail. (Photo by Susan Schen)
The Reinhart hoe is used by firefighting crews to cut fire lines, by foresters to scalp the ground before planting tree seedlings, and by trail crews for tread construction and maintenance. For trail work it can be used just as other grubbing tools like green grubbers, hazel hoes, and grub hoes, or it can be turned sideways and used to scrape. It’s with this second technique that the tool really shines, especially in finishing tread work. Due to the curvature of the tool head, the side edge is parallel to the tread surface when the volunteer is standing upright, allowing very precise scraping from a comfortable position, rather than having to crouch down as when using a shovel. This is especially handy in doing routine maintenance like slough and berm removal when the soil being removed is loose and combined with duff. The curved shape also allows the worker to scoop up the soil and duff and toss it off the trail, a useful feature for dispersing material down slope without building up a berm or damaging plants at the edge of the trail.
The side edge is parallel to the tread, making scraping easy and precise while finishing this section of tread on the upper Angel’s Rest Trail. (Photo by Susan Schen)
Reinhart hoes were also used in clearing rockslides from Larch Mountain Trail #441 after the Eagle Creek Fire. The rocks were fist-sized and smaller and the tool was used to work from the edge of the slide in, scooping up rocks and tossing them over the edge so they didn’t grind down the edge of the tread.
Material can be scooped up and dispersed without damaging plants at the trail edge. (Photo by Susan Schen)
While the Reinhart hoe is an excellent tool for many tread work situations, it is not ideal for use in very rocky soils, nor is it designed for prying. The head loses its sharp edges quickly if used on rocks and, just like shovels, the socket’s connection to the handle is not strong enough to withstand heavy prying. Care for the tool is similar to care for a shovel, such as removing caked-on dirt or mud after use to prevent rusting and sharpening the edges periodically with a file.
TKO volunteers on the Larch Mountain Trail in the Columbia Gorge after clearing rockslides from the switchbacks at Weisendanger Falls. The volunteer second from the left has a Reinhart hoe. (Photo by Susan Schen)
The next time you are out on a trail work party, you might give the Reinhart hoe a try. It’s got some neat advantages and can be a true joy to use.
Trailkeepers of Oregon will celebrate its tenth anniversary this year.
This important milestone marks not only ten years of our work, but some big steps to build the foundation for our next decade. Chief among those is the hiring of our first Executive Director, Steve Kruger. You will hear more from Steve in the coming months, which brings us to a second announcement—our newsletter. You are now reading the first issue of what we intend to be a quarterly newsletter. We hope that you find value in keeping up with our ongoing work and reading the fun and informative articles we have planned for you. This leads to our third announcement—a new membership program. We depend on your support to continue our work, and a great way to do that is by becoming a member. There are some fun rewards, and you can start your membership now by clicking here.
As we look ahead to some very big changes for the organization, it’s also a time to reflect on how far we’ve come. In the summer of 2007, I began posting trip reports on the Portland Hikers Forum, a new but rapidly growing web community, about a “lost trail” on the north side of Mount Hood. The trail was a little known extension of the popular Vista Ridge Trail. It toured some of the most scenic country in the Mount Hood area but had been abandoned for decades. Worse yet, the trail was being considered as part of a possible large motorcycle “play park” that would destroy many subalpine meadows and huckleberry fields in this remarkable area.
And so it was that volunteers from the Portland Hikers Forum organized an impromptu trip to clear the old trail in hopes of bringing more hikers to appreciate and defend what would soon be dubbed the Old Vista Ridge Trail. That trail work on Old Vista Ridge was the beginning of what would become Trailkeepers of Oregon (TKO). The founding members from the Portland Hikers Forum recognized the crisis facing trails on our public lands and the need for organized advocacy for both trails and hiking in Oregon.
As we celebrate our first decade much has changed. TKO now sponsors dozens of trail stewardship projects each year, totaling thousands of hours of volunteer work. We are gradually expanding our service area in an effort to become a truly statewide organization. And as part of our education and outreach mission, we continue to sponsor the Oregon Hikers Forum and the Oregon Hikers Field Guide, which now has information on 900-plus hikes, online and free to the public.
Now, ten years on, TKO will also be hiring our first Executive Director this summer to continue our growth and expand our protection of trails and construction of new trails. We hope you will take this next step with us, and, if you haven’t already, become a member of TKO. Your membership support will help ensure that we can continue our work as advocates and stewards for Oregon’s trails.
This summer, our journey as trail advocates will come full circle at Old Vista Ridge. The US Forest Service has agreed to formally recognize this beautiful trail after nearly fifty years of being officially abandoned. TKO is adopting the trail to ensure its ongoing maintenance. We’ll be leading stewardship projects there this summer to celebrate our first decade and continue bringing this old trail to life. And this time the work will be sanctioned!
We have much more planned as we move into our second decade, including brand new trails on Mount Hood, in the Columbia River Gorge, and around Oregon as part of our “20 Trails in 20 Years” campaign. Anyone can join us for one of our volunteer work parties! No experience or equipment is required, and you’ll feel great participating in the care of your trails.
